<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Mint Chocolate by BabelFishing</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400265">Mint Chocolate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabelFishing/pseuds/BabelFishing'>BabelFishing</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Owl House (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Crushes, Developing Relationship, Embarrassment, F/F, First Crush, Flirting, Fluff, Hair Dyeing, Intrusive Thoughts, Longing, Lumity, Mutual Pining, Pining, Vulnerability, distraction, soft moment</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:00:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,667</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400265</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabelFishing/pseuds/BabelFishing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Amity's not jazzed about the prospect of re-dying her hair. That is, until Luz volunteers to help. After that, she can hardly say "no," let alone remain focused on the task at hand. Much to her own surprise, Luz also finds herself caught up in the moment, leading to a split-second realization that carries whispers of a burgeoning affection. In the end, the pair end up with more on their mind than what to do with their snow white hair.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Amity Blight/Luz Noceda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>356</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Mint Chocolate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally, this one-shot was inspired by this comic by rattanwhip on Tumblr - https://rattanwhip.tumblr.com/post/627675556347101184/girls-night </p><p>However, I decided to cut out Luz's highlight for simplicity's sake while preserving the hair-dying focus. I also ended up leaning more into an angsty backstory for Amity's green hair, as outlined by Dana in her recent AMA. Hopefully, my lack of actual hair-dying experience doesn't show through too much...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Amity, what do you think?”</p><p>With her spread fingers combed into her hair, Luz turned to her friend across the lunchroom table. The expectant look on her face made it clear that she wanted to ascertain Amity’s opinion right there and then.</p><p>However, the youngest Blight sibling didn’t even react, to Luz’s inquiry or the conversation that proceeded it. Instead, she remained silent, her intent eyes glued to the open book laid before her. Since checking out the novel (at Luz’s suggestion) from the library a few days prior, Amity had hardly put it down. Even her usual willingness to talk with her friends at lunch had been put on hold until she found out if Lazuli the Brilliant would be able to reconcile her differences with her rival, Concordia the Prodigious.</p><p>With the final chapter fast approaching, Amity was now in a proper literary fugue state. But even through the veil of fiction, she managed to feel her friends’ eyes upon her. Reflexively, her head shot up, causing some of her bangs to fall into her eyes. As she brushed those several stragglers back into place, Amity looked back and forth, wondering if she had missed something important.</p><p>“I…um…agree?”</p><p>Amity hazarded a guess at the proceeding conversation, assuming that the quartet had sought her views on something. Agreement, in any case, felt like the best way to deflect attention from her bookish fixation.</p><p>Luz wasn’t convinced, though. She pursed her lips and squinted slightly without looking cross.</p><p>“Were you even listening?”</p><p>Worried that she’d upset Luz of all people, Amity tried to supply an adequate explanation.</p><p>“I was, yeah. I just…might have missed what you asked me.”</p><p>Waving her spread hand, which was still combed into her short-cropped hair, Luz repeated herself.</p><p>“Willow was just saying that she thought my hair was starting to look a bit long. I asked if you thought so, too.”</p><p><em>Don’t you dare cut a single inch</em>, Amity nearly blurted out. Instead, the young witch tried to moderate her opinion with a more palatable honesty.</p><p>“It definitely looks longer…not that it looks bad or anything!”</p><p>Under the table, Amity clenched her fist, knowing that her initial insinuation had come off as rude.</p><p>Luz either didn’t notice or didn’t mind, though, because she smiled happily through her friend’s assessment.</p><p>“Eh, it has looked better, I’ll admit. Maybe it is time for a trim. I was due for one before I ended up here, anyway, so it’s no wonder that it’s been so unruly lately.”</p><p>Without prompting, Amity continued to over-correct for her previous comment. “You don’t have to cut it! I mean, I’m sure you could find other ways to wear it, if it’s bothering you that much.” After pausing and averting her gaze slightly, she added, “It looks…good as it is, that’s my opinion. So, don’t just cut it on my account.”</p><p>Off to the side, Willow and Gus shared a knowing, split-second glance. Willow even raised an eyebrow, as if to silently say, “See, see?”</p><p>Luz didn’t notice their wordless exchange. However, she did notice that her companion across the table had begun to look a bit distraught, as if she were genuinely worried at the prospect of a hypothetical haircut.</p><p>In response, she reassured her friend, “Hey, it’s alright. I’m not going to cut it right this moment.” At the same time, Luz grasped a handful of locks at the back of her head, and added, “In fact, I might even have enough for a small ponytail again. It’s been forever since I’ve been able to do that.”</p><p>The image of Luz with a ponytail flashed into Amity’s mind suddenly, causing her to briefly zone out and stare into the middle distance. For how long she sat like that, drawn into her own wistful thoughts, she was not certain. But just as before, she was brought out of her fugue when she realized that her friends had again locked their sights on her.</p><p>“Hello, Amity… are you okay?”</p><p>Shaking her head furiously to cast away her distraction, Amity looked over to the question’s source. Willow was looking a bit concerned, as if she’d seen a miniature demon perch on the green-haired witch’s head.</p><p>“You keep zoning out, Amity. Are you sure you’re not running a fever or something?”</p><p>Realizing that her absentmindedness had been noticed, Amity tried to anchor herself back in the present and disperse her friends’ concerns. While closing her book, she reasoned, “I’m fine. I just…had a lot on my mind last night and didn’t sleep very well.”</p><p>“Oh, I see”, Willow replied, with her look of concern fading slightly, “I’m sorry to hear that.”</p><p>In reality, Willow could see right through her childhood friend’s lack of concentration. Her panicked response to the prospect of Luz cutting her hair had made the accomplished witch’s crush all that much more apparent.</p><p>But rather than dwell on what had become obvious to everyone except Luz, Willow circled back to her earlier observation. “Maybe you didn’t catch it, but I was saying that your hair is getting longer, too. I feel like it has been forever since I’ve seen your natural hair color.”</p><p>Willow hadn’t been the only one to notice, however. Just that morning, Amity had spent an extended period of time staring at her brown roots in the mirror, wondering if it was even worth it to dye them again. Like her grades, though, Amity knew too well that her mom would quickly notice if she let her hair color fade. As such, she knew that she realistically lacked any choice in the matter.</p><p>In any case, Willow’s observation reminded Amity unkindly of her own mother’s nagging. But rather than sassing her friend, as she would have her parent, Amity simply stared down at her remaining lunch and worried aloud, “Is it really that noticeable?”</p><p>Sensing that she had struck a bad chord, Willow tried her best to qualify the comment.</p><p>“It’s not that noticeable. It’s just…I remember when it used to just be all brown. That’s all.”</p><p>“If you’ve noticed it,” Amity pointed out, “then it’s probably time for me to dye it again.” Pushing aside her lunch tray, she added, “Not that I’m looking forward to it.”</p><p>“Why not?” Luz wondered aloud between bites of piranha fish sticks.</p><p><em>Where do I begin?</em> Amity thought to herself. But upon realizing that opening a can of worms at the lunch table wasn’t exactly courteous, she simply grumbled and explained, “It’s hard to do by yourself. I’d usually ask Emira or Edric to help, but they’d just give me a hard time about needing to dye my hair in the first place.”</p><p>Without hesitation, Luz shot up from her seat, leaned across the table, and grabbed both of Amity’s hands in a single, swift motion. Clutching them together, she beamed over at her friend and half-shouted, “Let me do it!”</p><p>Leaning back slightly and trying to fight back the warmth rushing to her cheeks, Amity stammered, “Let you do…what?”</p><p>“Help you with dying your hair, of course!”</p><p>The offer felt like it came out of thin air at first. But then again, Amity couldn’t immediately recall a time when any of her old friends had offered to help her like this. Here was Luz, offering to help her do something pretty distasteful just…because. The thought of it made Amity’s stomach knot up, though she also suspected that the newt stew the cafeteria served was the true culprit.</p><p>Accepting the offer was another matter, though. Indeed, Amity’s focus was primarily directed to her hands, which were presently growing warm in Luz’s grasp. This didn’t technically count as holding hands in any sense, but it still left Amity’s mind floundering momentarily. Once she was able to look up at her exuberant friend, Amity only managed to get out a few stutters as a reply.</p><p>“It’ll be fun,” Luz insisted, now pumping their joined hands up and down for emphasis. “I’ve dyed my hair before, so I know what I’m doing. Please, please, please?”</p><p>Something about Luz’s begging made it hard to turn down her offer. So, after collecting her wits and swallowing her hesitation, Amity eked out an acceptance.</p><p>“O…okay. Yeah, you can help.”</p><p>After slipping her hands free and throwing them down to her sides, she drew up a more serious tone before adding, “But just so you know, there are some risks with this process.”</p><p>“I can take it,” Luz proudly proclaimed, returning to her seat and pointing to herself, “besides, who among us has never sustained a light chemical burn?”</p><p>Willow and Gus were unsure of what their human friend was referring to, but they still wanted to be supportive. So, they didn’t object to Luz’s unusual claim.</p><p>“See? We can do this, no sweat. Just tell me when and where!”</p><p>Initially, Amity parted her lips to suggest completing the process at Blight Manor. But then, the thought of enduring her siblings’ taunting for bringing Luz home was enough to sour that location. An alternative site would have to do.</p><p>“If it wouldn’t bother Eda, we could do it at your place. We’ll need some space to do it safely, but there should be plenty up there.”</p><p>In Luz’s experience, most people just dyed their hair indoors and then got yelled at by their parents for staining the bathtub pink later on. But doing it outside sounded like a good way to avoid that whole problem.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m sure she’ll be okay with it. We could even do it tomorrow, if you want.”</p><p>“That would work.”</p><p>Just then, as Amity spoke, the end-of-period bell rang out, filling the entire cafeteria with a wail that could have woken the dead. After it ceased, the lunchroom’s occupants began to rise and shuffle out towards Hexside’s numerous corridors. Luz, Amity, Gus, and Willow began to pick up their belongings and trays as well before parting ways for the afternoon.</p><p>Amity, however, was so caught up in what she’d just agreed to that she started walking in the wrong direction. In fact, she discovered quickly that she had inadvertently followed Luz out toward the main atrium. Luz eventually noticed, too, and hung back to walk by her friend for a few paces.</p><p>“Hey, I didn’t know you had a class over this way after lunch.”</p><p>After realizing that she couldn’t escape back into the crowd, Amity turned her gaze down to the books in her arms and replied, “I don’t. But I just wanted to be sure you’re okay with doing this, the hair dying, that is.”</p><p>“Absolutely,” Luz shot back without hesitation, “I’m game to help. I know I’m not the most skilled witch in the Boiling Isles, but I’d like to think that I know my way around a bottle of hair dye.”</p><p>“Okay,” Amity sighed with relief. “Tomorrow sounds good, by the way, if Eda’s okay with it. I can get what we need for the spell tonight so that we can meet up after school.”</p><p>For a moment, Luz thought she heard Amity mention a spell. But before she could clarify, the madding crowd guided them past her divinations classroom.</p><p>“Looks like this is my stop. But consider me excited for tomorrow. Your hair’s going to look top notch when I’m done with it!”</p><p>“I hope so,” Amity managed to mumble well after her companion was out of earshot. With a gentle wave, she continued on her way toward…the exact wrong end of the building. She’d certainly be late for class now, but it had been worth it for another minute walking at Luz’s side.</p><p> </p><p>---</p><p> </p><p>The next day, while the afternoon sun hung in the sky, Amity stepped out of the dense woods surrounding Bonesborough and into a clearing near the Owl House. Rather than approaching the front door, though, Amity charted a wide course around the side of the House. In doing so, she hoped to avoid an otherwise irritating conversation with Hooty.</p><p>Unfortunately for her, the wood owl’s watchful eyes were too keen. Even from a distance, he spotted the green-haired witch and stretched his way out to her in a split second.</p><p>“Hooty hoot! Hiya, Amity! Luz said you’d be by this afternoon!”</p><p>After taking a calming breath in, Amity turned toward the elongated house demon and tried to reply as respectfully as possible.</p><p>“Yeah, Luz offered to help me re-dye my hair. So, here I am.”</p><p>While snaking his body forward just a bit further, Hooty chirped, “Oooooo, sounds like a fun time, hoot!” The sentient avian couldn’t help himself, though, and began to babble. “I tried to dye my feathers once, you know. You should have seen the look on Eda’s face when she saw my new look.”</p><p>Despite generally detesting Hooty’s banter, Amity found herself strangely interested in the owl’s story. “How’d you manage that?” she asked after reaching the house’s rear.</p><p>“Hoot, I’m not going to reveal my secrets that easily,” Hooty tempted, “but let’s just say that I didn’t expect the entire outside of the House to turn pink, too.”</p><p>“Sounds…unfortunate,” Amity cringed while trying not to imagine a fuchsia-tinted Hooty. That was the kind of thing that would haunt her nightmares if she wasn’t careful.</p><p>Before Hooty could carry on with his recollections, Luz popped out of the back door and waved over to her friend.</p><p>“Amity, you’re here!”</p><p>Amity, for her part, was still dressed in her school uniform. Luz, meanwhile, had changed into an oversized t-shirt, which was bunched up and bound in back to eliminate slack. The young human also wore a pair of rubber gloves, like the kind Amity had seen members of the construction coven wearing while working with electro-conductive hardware.</p><p>While setting down a bottle of white-tinted liquid, Luz acknowledged, “You were right, Eda did have some of this stuff in her storeroom. What’s it even for, anyway?”</p><p>After removing her satchel, Amity explained, “It’s pretty hard to come by these days. But when you mix it with normal dye, it acts as a setting agent. Basically, it helps bind the color to your hair for a longer period of time. My mom has always insisted that I use it.”</p><p>Being as she knew only the bare basics about potion-making, Luz felt like she was learning advanced alchemical secrets from a learned scholar. Even though Amity was in the Abominations track, Luz had quickly learned how well-rounded a student she was, regardless of subject. It was something she admired in her friend, especially when Amity had a chance to really flex her knowledge.</p><p>“Oooooh, I see,” Luz replied while giving the dusty bottle a second look. “I wish I had had this stuff when I dyed my hair blue.”</p><p>Dying one’s hair was not all that unusual in the Boiling Isles, at least in Amity’s experience. But blue was not a common color choice, by any stretch of the imagination. So, she couldn’t help but ask, “why’d you dye your hair blue?”</p><p>“Well, it started back when I read these comics,” Luz reported while plopping down on a nearby stump, “about a guy who has to defeat a girl’s seven evil exes to date her. I was trying to dress up as that girl for a convention, so I dyed my hair blue for the weekend. You should have seen it. I had the whole look, right down to the roller blades. My cheerleading coach wasn’t a huge fan of my new hair come Monday, but I still rocked it.”</p><p>“That’d be quite a look on you,” Amity quipped while trying to obscure her actual desire to see her friend’s azure locks.</p><p>“It really was. Getting the dye in was a huge mess, too. My mom actually helped me do it, and her hands were stained blue for a week – even after washing them a bunch.”</p><p>“My mom used to help me dye my hair, too,” Amity huffed, “but that wasn’t really my choice at all.”</p><p>Rising from her stump, Luz turned her head inquisitively. “What do you mean, ‘it wasn’t your choice?”</p><p>With a heavy sigh, a noticeable look of annoyance appeared across Amity’s face. Now that she was growing closer to Luz, she didn’t really want to ruin her own image by explaining her troubling family dynamics. But at the same time, there were few people as willing to listen as honestly and thoughtfully as Luz.</p><p>With that in mind, Amity swallowed her reluctance and spoke up after a moment.</p><p>“You know how my brother and sister both have <em>perfect</em> green hair, right?” This opening question was accompanied by a well-placed set of air quotes.</p><p>Luz nodded in reply and didn’t let on that it was the first thing she noticed about the pair.</p><p>“They’ve had hair like that their entire life. They got it from my mom. I got my dad’s hair, which wasn’t a big problem when I was younger.”</p><p>“Oh, right, like in Willow’s memories?”</p><p>“Yeah, I still had my brown hair back then. But at some point, my mom wanted me to ‘fit in’ with the rest of the family. So, she started forcing me to dye my hair green. After a while, I just started doing it myself so that she wouldn’t pester me about it. And now we’re here.”</p><p>Over their burgeoning friendship, Luz had started to get the idea that Amity’s home life was less than stellar. Clearly, she had a lot of pressure placed on her academic performance. But if her parents even groused about the young woman’s hair color, Luz could only imagine what other nit-picky details of her life they controlled.</p><p>Pressing the subject didn’t feel right, especially after watching Amity pinch the bridge of her nose in light exasperation. But Luz also felt strangely compelled to ask, “what’s so important about green hair anyway?”</p><p>“It’s a status thing, basically,” Amity explained, now feeling resigned to being as honest as possible. “My mom’s family is descended from some of the Isle’s first witches. So, she thinks its important that I ‘look’ like a member of the family.”</p><p>There was something almost jaded in Amity’s tone that Luz picked up on. It was clearly a touchy topic, no matter how she sliced it. At least for that moment, Luz felt thankful that her own mother had always been willing to humor her outlandish ambitions – save for when she intended to send her to a boring summer camp.</p><p>“Oh, I didn’t realize your family was so serious about…everything.”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s…great. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Amity’s sarcasm felt cutting, as if it were being used to catalogue her true feelings in plain view.</p><p>By then, Luz began to worry that she’d forced her friend into doing something she disliked vehemently. While pulling off her gloves, she leaned over and placed a hand on Amity’s shoulder. “Hey, if you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to. I just thought you wanted to…”</p><p>“I do want to,” Amity cut in while running a hand through her visible brown roots, “for now, anyway. Picking a fight with my parents over my hair color just doesn’t feel worth it.”</p><p>Sensing that further discussion on the matter would only sour her friend’s mood further, Luz tried to change the subject.</p><p>“Well, how about we get down to business, then? I borrowed a couple basins from Eda. Do you have the bleach?”</p><p>“What do you mean, ‘bleach?’”</p><p>Amity had only half-understood the question anyway. Her focus, it turned out, had become magnetized to Luz’s hand, which still rested firmly on Amity’s shoulder.</p><p>“As in, the stuff you use to turn your hair white before dying it?” Luz related.</p><p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” asserted Amity, “but I’m pretty sure the color removal spell is supposed to do the same thing.”</p><p>As always, Luz was enamored with any opportunity to learn a new spell. “Wait, you can take the color out of someone’s hair with magic? That’s amazing!”</p><p>At this point, a color removal spell was old hat for Amity. But upon seeing her companion’s excitement at its mere mention, she was reminded yet again why she <strike>loved</strike> admired the young human girl so much.</p><p>Before she could get too lost in her own thoughts, Amity refocused on the task at hand. With her right hand, she traced the outline of a spell circle in the air before explaining, “Basically, it’s  a timed spell that allows the users to target themselves. After casting it, the user is supposed to stand in a magic focus field. That draws the spell in at a steady pace, allowing it to make contact at just the right time. After that, it just takes a few seconds to go from just about any color of hair to white.”</p><p>Once Amity looked back up from her demonstration, she realized that Luz was leaning out of the back doorway, a lovable, eager smile on her face. With a quick shout, she called, “Hold on a minute.”</p><p>Amity did so, her pointer finger still raised so that the demonstration circle wouldn’t close. Seconds later, Luz burst back out the door, pen and paper in hand. After rushing back over, she nodded in Amity’s direction.</p><p>“Okay, go on, I want to write this all down so that I can tell Eda about it later.”</p><p>“Don’t you think Eda already knows about a spell like this?”</p><p>“I mean, maybe,” Luz concurred before leaning in close to whisper, “but also, you’ve seen her hair, right?”</p><p>Amity wasn’t sure about how to reply, especially on the off chance that the keeper of the house was in earshot. Instead, she allowed Luz to write down a few more notes before continuing her impromptu lecture.</p><p>“As I was saying, the color removal spell can technically be done by yourself. But it’s better to have someone else there as backup, in case something goes wrong.”</p><p>While pointing her pen back at herself, Luz joked, “that’s me. I’m backup.”</p><p>“Right. And I’ll need your help putting the dye in after.” As she said this, Amity knelt down and withdrew a stoppered glass bottle from her satchel. Through the clear glass, Luz could clearly see an opaque, emerald liquid that sparkled slightly as Amity swirled it.</p><p>“This is the dye, actually. It’s really concentrated, though, so be careful about getting it on your skin.”</p><p>Having slipped her rubber gloves back on already, Luz wiggled her fingers a bit. “That’s what these are for.”</p><p>It occurred to Amity right then that, in all her years of doing this, she’d never thought to cover her hands while applying the dye. As far she’d been told, it was just normal to have green-tinted hands for days after. <em>Thanks, Emira…</em></p><p>“I think that’s it, though,” Amity concluded. “We can get started, if you’re ready.”</p><p>“You better believe I am! What do I need to do first?”</p><p>Surveying the scene with a quick glance, Amity pointed over to the patch of grass away from the house. “Can you clear away those leaves over there? If they’re too close to the spell circle, they’ll turn white, too.”</p><p>With an almost dutiful salute, Luz barked, “You got it!”</p><p>As Luz bolted off and began to snatch up an armful of lose foliage, Amity couldn’t help but stop and stare. Moments like this made her wonder where Luz got her energy from, even after a full day of school. It wasn’t magic, unless it was something Eda had cast upon her. Whatever its source, Amity couldn’t help but feel her heart flutter a bit when her friend threw herself full force into something.</p><p>
  <em>Maybe she’d throw herself full force into my arms if I asked.</em>
</p><p>“STOP!”</p><p>A sudden shout crashed through the glade with the force of a thunderclap. In an instant, Luz dropped her handful of twigs and looked over at Amity, half-shocked. There, she saw her friend, red-faced with both fists clenched. For all she knew, she’d done something wrong…</p><p>Silently, Luz looked on at her friend, trying to ascertain the cause of the outburst. Amity, in turn, took a moment to realize what she’d done. Once she did, a reflexive hand slapped over her mouth, all while her face grew yet more crimson. With her other hand, she tried to wave Luz off.</p><p>“Not you…I just…ignore me…”</p><p>Even as she said it through her parted fingers, Amity knew that her friend wasn’t about to forget her unprompted vocal eruption. Perhaps it was for the better, though, because if Luz had heard her invasive thoughts aloud…</p><p>Luz gave a nervous smile in reply before beginning to recollect the leaves at her feet.</p><p>“Everything okay over there, Blight?”</p><p>
  <em>It could be better.</em>
</p><p>“Yes! Everything’s fine!” Amity seethed, wishing now that she could turn her brain off for as long as it took to recolor her roots. That wasn’t likely to happen, so she simply decided to turn around and face the House until she could get herself under control.</p><p>In the meantime, Luz finished her clean up job and tapped her friend on the shoulder upon completion.</p><p>“All cleared! What’s next?”</p><p>After exhaling a deep breath, Amity crouched down and withdrew some chalk from her bag.</p><p>“Next, I need to draw out the spell circle. You can watch, if you want.”</p><p>“You know I will,” Luz chimed back while grabbing up her pen and paper again.</p><p>The pair then made their way over to the clearing, where Amity knelt and began to draw out a mid-sized circle. Once that was complete, she began to fill the interior with an assortment of interconnected lines and curves. After a minute or two, the full ward took shape, all of which Amity created from memory.</p><p>After Luz finished copying the design down into her notes, she looked up with wide eyes.</p><p>“Amity, this looks like one my glyphs. What if it’s the same kind of magic?”</p><p>“I never thought of it that way,” Amity admitted while brushing the chalk dust from her hands, “but maybe it is.”</p><p>With the basic set-up now prepared, Amity returned to her satchel and withdrew a thin, familiar object. In her hand, she clutched a training wand, the very same conduit that she’d practiced with on the Knee.</p><p>“Ooooo, what’s that for?” Luz asked, placing out a hand to receive the wand. Amity handed it over and replied, “It’s to make the time-delayed spell easier to maintain. Otherwise, it might be hard to pull off between the two of us.”</p><p>Luz was ready to flick her wrist and cast out a spell through the wand when she noticed Amity pulling her usual hair tie out. This caused the young woman’s small ponytail and bangs to fall free. Then, without any fanfare, Amity began to pull all of her hair back up and into a more substantial ponytail. Doing so revealed a buzzed layer of brown hair that was usually concealed by her bangs.</p><p>“Wait…you have an undercut?!” Luz squealed, with equal parts intrigue and excitement. “How have you not mentioned this to me before?”</p><p>With a finger still strung into her hair tie, Amity glanced over, looking suddenly sheepish.</p><p>“Yeah, I’ve had one for a couple years now. It’s a lot easier for me to manage.” After sliding her finger free and letting her ponytail fall into place, she added, “Plus, it makes it quicker to dye.”</p><p>As she said this, Luz’s eyes grew wide again, her fists both clenched excitedly beside her face.</p><p>“It. looks. so. amazing on you!”</p><p>A warm rush of self-consciousness poured over Amity in response, with much of her nervousness showing in her reddening checks. Reflexively, her hands shot up and covered the back of her head, as if to conceal what had already been revealed.</p><p>“Oh, it’s…it’s nothing. I just…I...”</p><p>Try as she might, Amity couldn’t find the right words to register her friend’s compliment. Instead, those words of approval bounced frantically from ear to ear, progressively making it harder for her to form a coherent sentence. After stammering a bit more, though, she managed to form a smile, turn her gaze to the grass below, and murmur, “…thanks.”</p><p>Luz momentarily noticed her friend’s unusual fluster, but quickly dismissed the belief that she herself had been the cause. Instead, she tried to further emphasize her admiration for her friend’s chosen hair style.</p><p>“No joke, I tried to convince my mom to let me get an undercut last year. She wouldn’t let me, so I just got it cut this short. I still want one, though. Maybe you can show me how to do it!”</p><p>As she said it though, Luz suddenly realized that she couldn’t decide which she liked more – the idea of undercutting her own hair or just seeing it on someone else. When Amity finally removed her hands from the back of her head, though, the open question answered itself – she liked how Amity looked with an undercut the most.</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“Oh, what?”</p><p>Realizing that she’d vocalized her conclusive thought, Luz snapped back to reality and threw her hands up defensively.</p><p>“Oooooooooh I was just thinking…” she trailed off as she tried to wrestle up a justification for her interjection.</p><p>
  <em>…that your hair looks really cute. Maybe we should just leave it like it is.</em>
</p><p>It almost slipped out, but Luz caught herself in the nick of time.</p><p>“…that we should get started with this spell before it gets too late in the day!”</p><p>“Good idea,” Amity agreed, even without noticing Luz turning away and looking off into the distance with an expression on her face that silently said “so, that just happened.”</p><p>Amity lead the way, having grabbed the practice wand from Luz enroute to the spell circle. Once there, she stepped off about 10 paces and marked the ground with a few rocks. Luz, meanwhile, stayed over near the house, her gaze still unfocused off toward the woods.</p><p>A few more minutes went by, as Amity adjusted the wand’s settings and gave it a few test flicks to evaluate its performance. With that done, she called over to an idle Luz.</p><p>“Hey, I think we can start now. Are you…alright?”</p><p>Luz smiled gently in reply, without the same static energy that typically characterized her grin. Instead, her expression spoke of tenderness and genuine intent. Her body language, too, was noticeably bashful compared to just moments before.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just…before we do this, I wanted to say that I like your hair. I mean, I like it as it is, even if you didn’t dye it again. The green and brown…since we met, it’s reminded me of mint chocolate ice cream. That’s my favorite flavor, so…”</p><p>She trailed off again, realizing just then that she didn’t really plan out how to end her admission. Even so, it managed to quiet a voice in her head that was shouting for her to release what she’d held on her tongue before. She heeded the voice’s wishes without knowing precisely why, but it felt right in the moment.</p><p>Amity pinched herself, assuming immediately that what she’d heard had been a vivid dream. But when that didn’t work, her ears clicked back on and interpreted what they’d just heard. <em>I like it…my favorite…</em> - the words repeated again and again in the young witch’s mind. Each reverberation left a warm imprint that she wanted to commit to memory forever.</p><p>But at the same time, Amity felt seen by the only set of eyes she cared to worry about anymore. Their affectionate spotlight had made her feel like she couldn’t hide, but in a way that didn’t make her feel afraid. Those hazel-brown irises had averted their gaze now, but the feeling still lingered in her quickening pulse. If she could have both hidden away forever and told Luz the truth right then and there, Amity would have gladly done both.</p><p>With her mind still racing, Amity was at a loss for audible words. Fortunately for her, Luz spoke up to break the growing awkward silence.</p><p>“I just wanted to say that before we turned it vanilla, you know. But now we can do that!”</p><p>Just as suddenly as it disappeared, Luz’s jovial spirit roared back to the surface. With a bounce in her step, she sauntered back over to Amity and added “where do you need me to stand?”</p><p>
  <em>Closer.</em>
</p><p>“Over there!” Amity replied with a bellow. She hadn’t meant to be so loud, what with Luz being right beside her now. But she was also trying to shout down her subconscious, which was running wild as she tried to concentrate on the impending spell.</p><p>Unbothered by the shouting, Luz followed along and jogged over beneath the House’s overhang. Once there, she waved eagerly back at her friend.</p><p>Meanwhile, Amity drew in another deep breath and centered herself. Once the spell she wanted to cast appeared in her mind’s eye, she drew up the practice wand and traced its outline in the air. With a flick of her skilled wrist, the spell came to life in the form of a floating silver ball of fire.</p><p>The flaming orb then hovered in place, even after Amity pulled back the wand and tossed it down to the ground. Gesturing to the orb, she called over to Luz, “Okay, it’s starting now. Keep back from the circle.”</p><p>“Got it, chief!”</p><p>With the spell ward only a few paces away, Amity knew that she could easily make it in within the 15 second casting window. But despite that knowledge, she still broke into a serious run, perhaps fearful that she would mess up the spell in front of Luz.</p><p>The first step in the right direction felt firm, making her sprint feel over before it even began. But as her second step fell, Amity’s mind again flashed with Luz’s earlier words.</p><p>
  <em>I like it…my favorite…</em>
</p><p>That split-second break in concentration was enough to throw the young witch off balance, causing her third step to falter and trip her up. Before she knew it, Amity was stumbling forward, her trajectory still clear to land within the spell circle.</p><p>Out of the corner of her eye, though, she saw a blur of motion moving towards her, arms out. Just as she began to feel the spell’s heat beginning to bear down on her, it clicked.</p><p>“Luz! No! Don’t step into…”</p><p>But her words were cut off when the silver flame exploded around them, engulfing them both temporarily in tongues of white heat. The light from the spell was more than either could handle, causing their eyes to slam shut reflexively.</p><p>Once the luster faded, however, the pair found themselves in a ring of perfectly white grass. Neither of them felt any burns, making it clear that the spell had at least succeeded enough to not harm them. Amity was even more surprised to find herself not lying flat on the ground but being held just inches off the ground.</p><p>“That was a close one.”</p><p>Luz swiped a hand over her forehead while pretending to whip away beads of sweat. The gesture might have been missed if something atop Luz’s head hadn’t immediately caught Amity’s eye.</p><p>“Luz…oh no…”</p><p>“What? What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like there’s something on my face?”</p><p>“There is…sort of.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Ummm…your hair is maybe…a little…white.”</p><p>And indeed, the magical flame had entirely bleached Luz’s short-cut brown hair, even without it being the intended target. Amity’s mixed brown and green hair had also gone snowy pale, though she had been prepared mentally for that result.</p><p>After setting Amity down in the grass, Luz rushed over to one of the Owl House’s back windows. Once there, she saw her snow-capped dome as clear as day, without a single brown lock in sight. From the turf, Amity feared for the worst, imagining prematurely her friend’s anger at the accident.</p><p>“Luz it’s okay. We can dye it back if we need to. It might look a bit different but…”</p><p>Despite steeling herself, Amity didn’t hear a single complaint from Luz’s direction. Instead, the young human just stared at herself in the window’s mirrored edge, taking in the sight of her almost cartoonishly white hair.</p><p>“Amity…” Luz started in, her spread fingers now passing through her white mane to evaluate its consistency, “this is…maybe…one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.”</p><p>Amity wasn’t sure if she’d misheard or if Luz had actually misspoken. “Wait, it is?”</p><p>Turning and throwing both hands up to the sky, Luz bubbled, “It is! I mean, look at me? I look like Inuyasha!”</p><p>After running over and helping her friend stand back up, Luz continued to gush in wonderment of her predicament. “Oh man, if my friends online ever saw this, they’d think I was cosplaying as Kakashi for sure.”</p><p>Hesitantly, Amity tried to make sense of the situation. “So, you’re not mad?”</p><p>“No way! My day literally just got so much cooler. Wait here, I’m going to go show Eda.”</p><p>Just as she took her first step toward the back door, Amity grabbed her friend’s shoulder and attempted to choral her.</p><p>“No, please don’t…I don’t want her thinking that I messed this up.” After glancing around to see if anyone saw the mishap, she went on, “just stay out here. I can see if there’s brown hair dye in my bag.”</p><p>After a bit of frantic digging, Amity did manage to retrieve a fluid-filled bottle labeled, “Brown, Natural.” With that in hand, Amity dashed over and began to pour it into one of the nearby basins.</p><p>“Here, we can dye it back before anyone notices.”</p><p>But Luz simply shook her head in reply. “Nah, let’s leave it for a bit. Besides, we’re here to do your hair. So, you’re up first.”</p><p>Amity wanted to argue more but acquiesced after Luz accented her reversal with a wide grin. At this point, that smile could have told her to dye her hair any or every color of the rainbow and she would have done it without question.</p><p>Just over an hour later, the pair looked at themselves in the House’s mirrored windows and saw precisely the right reflection. Amity’s hair had been properly dyed back to its green hue, roots and all, while Luz’s hair was a perfect ringer for its earlier brown. In fact, the dye’s match was good enough to fool Eda when she checked in on their progress midway through the drying process.</p><p>Amity couldn’t help but laugh when all was said and done, though.</p><p>“You sure are lucky that I had the right dye with me already. Or else you’d have had the whitest hair in all of Hexside for a day.”</p><p>“I would have gladly accepted that crown,” Luz replied regally, as if she already had a scepter in hand.</p><p>“Oh, also…” Amity tacked on, making it sound more like an afterthought, “thanks for what you said earlier. I don’t think anyone has said anything nice about my hair in years.”</p><p>A light blush appeared at Luz’s cheeks, but she managed to obscure it by looking away suddenly. “Oh yeah, it was nothing. I just thought it might make a difference for next time.”</p><p>“It might…it might.”</p><p>Amity repeated herself while looking down at her own hands. They were stained an earthy brown, just as Luz’s were stained a verdant green. Together, they made a color combination that hardly fit Luz’s affectionate description from earlier, neither particularly minty nor chocolate-y.</p><p>Even so, their stained hands felt like a reminder. Sure, the dye across their palms would wash away after a few days. But even after that, both Amity and Luz knew with certainty that whatever they were feeling, it wasn’t going to fade away in a hurry.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>